Mayoral candidate Alexey Navalny accused of libel

Photo ITAR-TASS/ Artiom Geodakyan

ST.PETERSBURG, August 21 (Itar-Tass) - Deputy of the St. Petersburg legislature Vitaly Milonov has accused candidate for the Moscow mayor's post Alexey Navalny of libel, which was found in Navalny's promotional materials.

"I am lodging a complaint with the Moscow office of the Investigative Committee (IC). In my opinion, Navalny's canvassing materials have elements of libel," Milonov told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

Tuesday's issue of Alexey Navalny's canvassing newspaper claimed that the United Russian Deputy, Vitaly Milonov, had called to draft women into mandatory military service. "I have never initiated such a bill. It is "a fake" trick which Navalny uses not for the first time," Milonov said. "I took it easy until the Moscow mayoral election campaign began. But now, this might negatively affect the image of the United Russia party," Milonov declared.

"I have no right to speak about Navalny as a candidate. A lawsuit demanding to expel Navalny from the election might be filed by other candidates. I do not know, however, whether such a possibility is envisaged in the Moscow election law," Milonov said.

Earlier, Duma MP from a Just Russia party Oleg Pakholkov had appealed to IC, demanding to open a criminal case against Navalny on charges of libel. The deputy was angered by the information released in Navalny 's Twitter on August 14 which contained references to a certain article about Oleg Pakholkov's alleged illegal activities.

The press service of A Just Russia party declared that the Voronezh court ruled that the "information was not true and slanderous."

"Mr. Navalny, whose Twitter is being read by hundreds of thousands people, in my opinion, had acted deliberately, clearly realizing that by spreading obvious lies he was dealing a heavy blow to my reputation. As a lawyer by profession Navalny ought to realize that a person responsible for at least a few of such crimes should have long been put to prison for a long term," MP Pakholkov said.